The knives are out already for cast of My Fair Lady rehash

Published on Friday 13 June 2008 08:54

BY now, Hollywood has milked the proverbial cash cow so many times, it's a wonder the poor beast hasn't taken the hump and run off. And yet, they always find room for one more jug.

Speaking of which, it's likely you will have heard the news by now. That Columbia Pictures are to make a new movie musical version of one of the all-time classics – My Fair Lady.

'What's going on?' fans of the original are complaining in internet chat forums. 'Has Tinseltown ran dry of original material?' And, 'Is nothing sacred anymore?'

Yes, yes... all that. And you're right. But while it's a sad indictment on Hollywood that they have to churn out remake after remake – due, presumably, to having no decent scripts – it isn't to say that My Fair Lady will necessarily be a massive turkey. Though well it might.

According to reports, Keira Knightley, star of Atonement, Pride and Prejudice and the Pirates of the Caribbean films - and shortly to be gracing the Edinburgh International Film Festival (see left) - has already agreed to sign up to the project and started singing lessons.

No doubting it, it's an extremely bold move from the fledgling actress – one that could make or break her promising career.

Let's be clear, Knightley's got some very big hats to fill when she takes on the iconic role of Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl who makes good in Edwardian high society under the tutelage of one Professor Henry Higgins.

Julie Andrews starred on Broadway in the original 1956 Lerner & Loewe musical, based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. It scooped six Tony Awards, including best musical and best actor (Rex Harrison), but Andrews lost the Tony Award for best actress to Judy Holliday (Bells Are Ringing) and then lost the movie role to Audrey Hepburn.

But 23-year-old Knightley isn't the only one being scrutinised by My Fair Lady fans across the World Wide Web.

Word is, Daniel Day-Lewis is first choice of the film's producers – which include British theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh – for the role of 'Enry 'Iggins. And that seems to be upsetting fans just as much as the decision to sign up Knightley.

Yes, questions are being asked on the internut. Namely, can either of them even sing?

Thing is, it hardly matters. As film buffs know, Hepburn's singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon, while the Higgins role was written for an actor who was not a trained singer and had never done a musical – which was just as well, as Rex Harrison couldn't sing at all.

And another thing worth considering - there was at least as much controversy over the casting of Hepburn at the time as there will be over the casting of Knightley or anyone else this time around, so let them give it a try.

Meanwhile, someone get a call into Johnny Depp to see if he'd be up for reprising the Gene Kelly role in Singin' In The Rain.

Actually, there's a thought – Depp as Higgins. And while we're at it, how about Julie Andrews as his mother?